The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Human action has already altered between one-third and one-half of the Earth’s land surface — with tremendous impacts to nature.

And these impacts may be just the beginning:

• Global economic output is expected to double over the next two decades.
• Energy and mining companies will invest unprecedented sums — more than $20 trillion, by some estimates — in projects from Madagascar to Mongolia.

These activities will have increasing dramatic effects on ecosystems — unless we find better approaches for balancing development needs with those of nature.

Development by Design: Net Gains for Nature

That’s why The Nature Conservancy is advancing a landscape-level mitigation planning approach called Development by Design.

Development by Design balances the needs of planned development — such as oil and gas, mining, and infrastructure — with those of nature conservation. The approach supports decision-making on how best to:

• Avoid conflicts between project impacts and conservation priorities;
• Maintain biodiversity; and
• Determine effective and transparent mitigation responses for the development, including compensating conservation actions known as “biodiversity offsets.”

The goal is for projects to have a net beneficial impact on nature.

Leading with Science and 50 Years of Experience

Development by Design is a science-based approach that can benefit people, nature and business.

To advance Development by Design, the Conservancy is drawing on all the elements that make it a conservation leader:

• 50 years of conservation planning experience,
• More comprehensive ecological data than ever available before,
• Advanced modeling tools, and
• A history of achieving effective on-the-ground conservation.

The Conservancy is applying Development by Design at several pilot projects — oil and gas fields and renewable energy sites in the United States and pilot regions of Colombia and Mongolia where energy and mining exploration is advancing rapidly.

Through these projects, the Conservancy is improving mitigation, supporting better policy, and achieving conservation at scale. 

For more information on Development by Design, email Bruce McKenney or Joe Kiesecker at dbd@tnc.org.